A Michigan furry with a historical past of crude feedback about Charlie Kirk, Elon Musk and America itself is operating for US Congress — and insists he’s being utterly severe.
Samuel Smeltzer is looking for the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s seventh District within the 2026 midterms, when he hopes to problem Republican incumbent Tom Barrett for his congressional seat in Washington.
However Smeltzer is not any unusual candidate — he’s an outspoken member of the “Furry” group, and has been campaigning below the identify “Elyon Badger” — full with a cartoon badger masks to match his identify.
“We’d like somebody like Elyon who really has the guts required to vary issues for the higher,” Smeltzer instructed Pleasure Supply in October, referring within the third particular person to the honey badger “mascot” he adopted as part of the furry group.
The previous Military Nationwide Guardsman usually campaigns in his badger apparel, which is usually paired with a inexperienced marijuana themed go well with, high hat, a psychedelic cape and a big plush blunt.
Elyon Badger is even his official identify on the Michigan poll, the place he’s operating as a Democratic Socialist with a “tax the wealthy” platform targeted on offering common well being care.
“I form of really feel that honey badger vitality inside me,” he mentioned, referring to the broadly meme-ed African badger identified for its ferocious temperament.
And Smeltzer’s marketing campaign persona follows go well with — his social media is crammed with movies of himself raging in opposition to billionaires, institution politicians from each side of the aisle and ferociously sounding off about the advantages of socialism.
He’s additionally a fierce advocate of the LGBTQ group he is part of, saying in August when the Supreme Court docket was requested to overturn homosexual marriage that “these fascists” have been coming for everybody, and that no person in Washington was doing something about it.
“Individuals need to see one thing completely different in Congress, and as foolish as I could also be, I’m lethal severe in the case of the insurance policies I need to enact,” he instructed Pleasure Supply.
“You deserve larger wages and extra free time with your loved ones,” he wrote on his official marketing campaign web page, the place he says he desires “to construct a authorities that lastly works for the individuals, NOT THE BILLIONAIRES.”
However Smeltzer’s honey badger has additionally attracted its criticisms.
He celebrated Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September, calling the conservative activist “evil” in a single publish and implying he was a Nazi in one other.
In different posts he wrote “I hate American and I really like China” and “America deserved 9/11,” praised Luigi Mangione’s homicide of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and even wrote “kill billionaires” on Bluesky as just lately as Nov. 7.
He couldn’t be reached for remark, however beforehand instructed the Free Beacon that his institution opponents have been afraid of what he — and his furry compatriots — symbolize.
“The furry group is the last word type of freedom in America and that’s why conservatives hate it and the queer group a lot,” he instructed the outlet.
He additionally assailed institution Democrats for failing to “combat for the working class,” saying they might “solely trudge alongside and drag this damaged cart by way of the mud.”
Smeltzer is going through off in opposition to six others for subsequent yr’s Democratic nomination, together with former US Ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink.
